Twelve Western dioceses and archdioceses, including all those in Northern
California, are putting together written guidelines on how to handle cases
involving molestation by priests.

The dioceses, 10 in California and one each in Nevada and Arizona, last
summer formed their own liability insurance company, in large part, officials
said, because they had no coverage in cases in which parents of molested
children sued the diocese.

"Virtually every diocese in the country lost its liability coverage
for any type of sexual misconduct by priests, teachers, religious, lay
people," said Bruce Egnew, president of the new insurance company,
called The Ordinary Mutual. "Having seen the writing on the wall
that these things are very, very expensive was one of the reasons we formed
our own insurance liability company."

The guidelines are to be sent to all priests in the parishes and to schools,
hospitals and other church-owned facilities in the dioceses so that any
allegation of child molestation is taken seriously, church officials said.

''It is to be a policy that governs that immediate reaction," Egnew
said. "What you do when you get this call from a parent. Or when
a pastor hears it from another priest. Or when a nun hears it from a kid.
Or when a second-grade teacher hears or sees or senses a problem."
Besides instructing Catholic officials to immediately pass along to diocesan
headquarters any child-molestation allegations, the guidelines instruct
diocesan officials to swiftly ascertain whether the allegations are credible,
to notify authorities if appropriate, to remove the alleged molester from
involvement with children and to seek immediate psychiatric help for both
the priest and the child victims. ''We're in the 10th draft of the guidelines
and we've been working on it for six or seven months," said Brother
Haig Charchaf of the Oakland diocese. "And the papers have gone out
to the bishops."

'I've been a priest for 25 years, and I think it
was a case of "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil."'
—Father Miles Riley, San Francisco archdiocese

The Catholic Church was first urged in 1985 to adopt a national program
encompassing these types of guidelines, but the bishops decided to continue
to deal with the problem on a local basis. Many of the dioceses still
have not adopted formal procedures, despite multimillion-dollar settlements
that have been paid by dioceses across the country.

Although none of the 12 Western dioceses that joined the insurance company
ever paid more than $250,000 in a claim, South Bay church officials have
had to deal with several cases.

Five years ago, 70-year-old Father Vincent I. Breen resigned as pastor
of Fremont's Holy Spirit Church in the Oakland diocese after police officers
— called by parents — revealed that he'd fondled eight girls,
ages 7 to 14. As a condition of his resignation, no charges were filed
against Breen, who has since died.

Last year, a religion teacher at Archbishop Mitty High School in San
Jose resigned after admitting that he invited a 16-year-old student to
his Mountain View apartment and had sex with her.

Also in Santa Clara County, a priest who was sent away for treatment
for pedophilia now works as a priest in the San Jose diocese, according
to Father Eugene Boyle.

''I can't tell his name, but it was not hushed up," said Boyle,
vicar for public relations. "He received a definite period of counseling
and a long period of probation."

Boyle said that because the case happened before the San Jose diocese
was created in 1981, it was handled administratively by the San Francisco
archdiocese.

Officials there, however, did not cite this case — or any other
— when asked whether they had been forced to deal with pedophilic
priests.

''That's one problem we haven't had, thanks be to God," said Deacon
Norman Phillips, a spokesman for the San Francisco archdiocese, who has
been there since July.

In Monterey, Albert Ham, attorney for the diocese, said the same.

''We've never had any case of a child molestation," Ham said. "And
I hope we never do."

But Egnew says that such cases, particularly if Catholic lay teachers
are counted, are inevitable.

''It's statistically bound to happen when you're dealing with the thousands
and thousands of people in our system," he said. "We're probably
going to get sued in these cases anyway. But dealing with them openly
while respecting the privacy of those involved is a way of ensuring that
we're not negligent and that we're not giving license to, tolerating or
affirming this kind of behavior."

Local Catholic officials said the guidelines are the result of a growing
awareness of the problem and how to appropriately deal with it.

''I've been a priest for 25 years, and I think it was a case of 'hear
no evil, see no evil, speak no evil,' " said Father Miles Riley,
an official in the San Francisco archdiocese. "The church was like
a loving parent who wants to believe the best about her children and adopts
an attitude of loving ignorance. At one level we knew, but we didn't want
to know."